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Friday, November 8, 2013

Sepia Saturday: Kreepy Kewpie

Sepia Saturday challenges bloggers to
share family history through old photographs.

This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt shows a couple at the
beach posing with a stuffed animal known as Korky the Cat. Even though I have plenty of beach photos, I’m
seizing the opportunity to feature something almost as kwirky and kreepy as
Korky.

It’s a Kewpie doll.

Two friends of Violetta Davis
on the steps of Spotswood Hall
Harrisonburg Teachers College 1923
(now James Madison University)

The photo of two young girls with a Kewpie doll is in a
photo album belonging to my grandaunt Violetta Davis Ryan. Who they were and whether they were in
costume are a puzzle. They look too
young to have been Violetta’s college friends.
Maybe they were students she befriended while student-teaching.

image from dollkind.com

Even more puzzling is what that girl is doing with a
Kewpie doll. And how can she look so
lovingly at it? I’ve never been a fan of
the Kewpie doll. Something about those
tufts of hair, wide side-glancing eyes, and overly-sweet smile make the doll
look like its hiding a devilish secret.

The girl in the photo seems to love it though. After all, the Kewpie doll was a popular toy
in the early 1920s and is still quite collectible among doll enthusiasts today.

The Kewpie doll was the creation of writer and
illustrator Rosie O’Neill about 1909. At
first the Kewpie was a comic strip character, a baby Cupid complete with blue wings. Then came the Kewpie paper dolls. Expanding on that idea, O’Neill traveled to
Germany to assist a toy manufacturer in the production of bisque dolls. By the 1920s, the more affordable and durable
composition dolls were manufactured and sold in the United States.

Most likely a composition doll is what the girl in
Violetta’s photo is holding. The
straight legs indicate the doll is one of the early models. All Kewpies were sold without clothes, so any
dresses or coats were added by the proud owner.
If the doll weren’t dressed, the trademark red paper heart would be
visible on its chest.

What do you think – kreepy or kute?

Be a doll and visit my friends at Sepia Saturday for more
stories of quirky photo props and beach scenes.

45 comments:

Kreepy, I agree, at least without clothes, but there was a tradition at the Royal Sydney Show that people who went there bought kewpie dolls on sticks that were rather more attractive, because they were dressed in gauzy ballerina style, and little girls loved to wave them around. There is even a well-known Australian play called "Summer of the Seventeenth Doll".

Sorry Wendy, kute! I never ever had one, and only see them in antique stores, but I can see the joy a little child might have owning one. Then again, I'm a big fan of dolls and clowns, well not the kreepy klowns out there. I really enjoyed all your information about them though, much I didn't know. I do wonder too about the one girl's is it a costume? I even googled Rosie to see if she ever dressed like that. It does seem odd, and I'm very curious!

Perhaps the one on the right is studying to be a nurse, and the kewpie doll was practice for helping to deliver a baby? I think they're pretty creepy too, but not as creepy as some dolls I've seen, and don't even get me started on clowns.

Love the rolled-down black stockings on the gal as she appears in both pictures. Obviously something was going on there which centered on the doll. I don't think the Kewpie is either kreepy or kute. I may have had a cheap plastic version of it, but don't remember liking or disliking it. My favorite was a Sparkle Plenty doll with long blond hair.

I'm voting with the creepy crowd! Most dolls give me creepies, anyway (those cabbage patch monsters were dreadful!)...there's something a little twisted about all of 'em. Give me a good old teddy bear or a cocker spaniel.

They’re not my choice I must admit, but I can see the appeal. I prefer a doll with animated limbs.I’ve always been fascinated by dolls and dollmaking so it was interetsing to read a bit about the history.

What a great picture! Two of them! And kind of a puzzle. The girl in glasses is dressed up like nurse or maid? Another girl seems too grown up to play dolls. Maybe it was kind of a sketch they were dressed up like that for? As for Kewpie - many thanks for the story! 3 years ago I bought modern version of it (cheap made-in-China one) in large supermarket in Moscow. I liked it for "vintage" look and striped bathing suit it was dressed in. It is really great to know what stands behind things were are dealing with.

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About Me

My name is Wendy. About twenty years ago, I helped my mother research the Jolletts. Since retiring from teaching, I have expanded my research which I share here. When I’m not looking for my own family, I index for FamilySearch and the Greene County Historical Society.
Welcome to Jollett Etc. Please leave a comment to let me know you were here. If you have more information or believe we are related, EMAIL ME at wendymath at cox dot net